Complaint Review: Andrew McCourt

I have been trying to obtain child support from this man for over a decade. He is employed full-time, and takes home up to $1000/per week in wages. He worked "under-the-table" for the same company for nearly a decade. To date, he has made less than 10 weekly child support payments and our daughter will be 11 this January. This fact alone should speak volumes. The case is supposedly being handled by the DOR child support enforcement agency, but even though a court order was established in 1995 (which he blantantly disobeyed) they refused to summon him to court until I personally went to the Dedham Probate Courthouse and pleaded for help this past May 2002. By this time, the arrears had reached over $30,000. Mind you, this is only for our daughter. He fathered another child for which he owes nearly the same in back support.

Here is the kicker. He was found GUILTY of contempt, given a suspended jail sentence to be imposed if he failed to comply with the child support order and instructions of the court. Within a month, he did fail to comply with the orders of the court BUT the warrant for his arrest was NEVER ISSUED as it should have been per the Judge's ruling. I physically went the courthouse again and asked WHY have the warrant has not been issued. No one could tell me! They suggested that I just file another contempt (which I did) and today, nearly a month later, I await another hearing.

I am astounded at how the warrant was able to slip through the cracks. We are talking about an enormous amount of arrears. For more than 10 years this man has willfully failed to pay child support for both of children, yet he still walks the streets. How can this be?

Cassandra
Medfield, Massachusetts